Chronicles – Hydatius & the Ravenna Annals

The Christian chronicle of late antiquity is an example of a new genre of historical writing. The chronicle is different in form and scope to the narrative history. Cassiodorus, who was a chronicler in the sixth century, defined it as, “the mere shadows of histories and very brief reminders of the times”.[1] The chronicle has two obvious functions: it dates events in chronological order, and it records history; albeit briefly. The Christian chronicle has another overarching intention and that is to “present the history of salvation –God’s intervention in the shaping of the world”.[2] This essay will explore this new genre, and show that a thorough understanding of its peculiar characteristics is required when attempting historical research from extant late antique chronicles. The chronicle of Hydatius and, what has become known as the Ravenna Annals, will be analysed, and examples of writing from these will be used to illustrate characteristics of this genre.

Chronicles – Hydatius & the Ravenna Annals

Chronicling, as annalistic data collecting, has been a feature of all literary civilisations. The Bronze Age Sumerians listed their kings.[3] The Assyrians and Babylonians kept records of their king’s victories and campaigns, compiled in time lines based on astronomical diaries.[4] Lineages of kings and their military campaigns were recorded by the Egyptians. The kingdom of Judah scribes kept records of their kings and genealogies.[5] The Greek city states were slower to commit to chronicling their records, but from the fifth century BC onwards would keep lists of office holders, priests and victors. The Roman republican annals maximi, contained the tabulae pontificum, which was a record of priests from the fifth century BC, and information of this nature continued to be recorded in the acta urbis in the imperial period.[6] These records would include lists of consuls, victories, festivals and celebrated historical events.[7] The acta urbis under Augustus would become another tool of public persuasion, as it was directed to prominently cover the activities of the princeps and his retinue.[8] This shows how chronicling can be much more than the mere attempt to keep a list of events and personages; it is the prioritising and ordering of historical events for publication. The Christian chronicle would make maximum use of this function.

Eusebius of Caesarea (AD 260-340) is considered the most influential chronicler of late antiquity; as historians we still use some of his dating as references today. The most obvious difference between Eusebius’s chronicle and the many forms of non Christian chronicling listed earlier is the sheer scope of his chronicle; it was an attempt to chronicle the history of the world. Sextus Julius Africanus (AD 160-240), with his Chronographiai, preceded and influenced Eusebius in creating a ‘world annalistic history’ from creation to AD 221; however, only fragments of Africanus’s chronography survive.[9] Hippolytus of Rome produced a chronicle shortly after Africanus in 234.[10] The fact that both these chronicles were written in Greek has consigned their influence to the Eastern Roman Empire and, later, to the Byzantine Church.

Eusebius’s first chronicle was published in the AD 280’s, and also written in Greek, but it was later translated by Jerome into Latin.[11] Eusebius drew on antique and contemporary historical sources. The enduring and immensely influential success of Eusebius’s chronicle is in many ways due to the innovative formatting he employed. The multiple columns containing the time lined information can allow the reader to cross reference events between civilisations. This was used in the second part of the chronicle now referred to as the Canon published in 326. Croke writes of the Christian chronicle, “as a stylised historiographical genre,” and sees it as a necessary response to the Christianisation of the Roman world.[12] After Constantine’s conversion in 313, and with the exponential growth of the Christian church in the following decades and centuries, the world order had to be rewritten for Christian Romans. One of the distinctive characteristics of Eusebius’s chronicle is its anti-pagan polemical intention; and this was to establish a chronographical argument for the precedence of Moses over Plato.[13] Pagan intellectuals like Celsus, who had published his On the True Doctrine in 178, and Porphyry who published Against the Christians in the third century, had put forward that the Hebrew religion was a later cult and had borrowed key ideas from Plato. How better to establish the ascendancy of the origins of the Christian religion than by establishing the definitive world history chronograph. This continued on a “traditional polemic between Greeks and Jews” in regard to this matter.[14]

“ the Greeks are absent… they were entirely unlettered since … Cadmus who first brought them an alphabet from the land of the Phoenicians… that Egyptian (did) reproach Solon in Plato’s book [Timaeus 22b] …it is impossible to study ancient history from you.” “[15]

Jerome (345-419) would continue on Eusebius’s chronicle chronologically until 378 and also amend a number of the listings relating to Roman history. Jerome also linked his chronicle to that of Eusebius with a statement of authorship and this continuation would echo down through the ages. This amending of the predecessors work by the latest chronicler would cause trouble for modern historians in determining the authorship of the material.[16] The chronicle would be continued in the west by Prosper in fifth century Gaul and in the east by Marcellinus in Constantinople in the sixth century; Croke calls this a “diachronic syndicate” of Christian writers.[17] Hydatius of Lemica would link his chronicle to that of Jerome and record the period 379 to 468.

The Hydatius Chronicle featured the consular annals as source material and these are considered to be drawn from the Consularia Constantinopolitana.[18] Hydatius employed a number of counting systems, most notably the festival of Olympia, occurring every five years. Roman emperors were listed, beginning with Theodosius as the thirty ninth in line since Augustus. The bishops of Rome were listed providing another chronological tool. Overall, it is considered to be confusing as a chronological source by modern historians, but a wonderful source for information about the barbarian peoples in the Western Roman Empire. Muhlberger emphasises that the content of chronicles are shaped by the opinions and experiences of the chronicler. The differences in the accounts of barbarian activities in Prosper’s chronicle from that of Hydatius reveal this.[19] Mitchell declares Hydatius an important source for the barbarian groups in the Western Empire.[20] Gillett sees him as one of the “fullest contemporary sources for the west” 440 to 467.[21] In Hydatius’s own experience, he was arrested, incarcerated and then released by the Sueves in 460; and as a result of this was:

“A champion of the Roman community against Suevic oppression and a vigorous opponent of heresy.”[22]

Hydatius became a bishop in 427 and was one of the bishops involved in Turribius’s campaign against the Manicheans in Gallaecia.[23] Hydatius’s chronicle is brimming with anti-heretical ecclesiastical politics and this is enmeshed in his reportage of the barbarian tribes and their activities.

“Degenerating into the heresy of the Gnostics, Priscillian was ordained bishop in Avilla by the bishops whom he had gathered to himself in the same depravity.”[24]

Although Priscillian is later executed by the usurper Maximus, Hydatius informs the reader that the heresy spread into his Gallaecia. The province is also overrun by Vandals and Sueves, and the:

“four plagues of sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts raging everywhere throughout the world, the annunciations foretold by the Lord through his prophets came to fulfilment.”[25]

The reader learns from Hydatius’s account that the world is changing and the eschatological tone of another chronicle entry has starving mothers eating their children. There are tracts about bishops battling heresies, negatively slanted reports about barbarian incursions, and the instability of the Western Roman Empire is indicated by the ‘revolving door’ of emperors.

The Ravenna Annals, so named by Waitz, are surviving fragments of the consular annals or fasti, which recorded events in the Western Roman world time lined by the annual consular appointments. These records are anonymously scribed and recognised by their terse entries:

“4th of the reign of Theodosius II

During this consulate Jovianus and Sebastianus were killed in Gaul and their heads went to Ravenna on 30 August, and their brother Sallus was killed.”[26]

The laconic style is distinct from the literary content of the Hydatius Chronicle. Mitchell tells us that many of these chronicles were illustrated, adding to their popularity with readers. These annals are also from a lay perspective and are not concerned with ecclesiastical politics.[27] It was suggested by Holder-Egger that the fasti are fourth century lists originally published for the use of civil servants, merchants and jurists.[28] Kauffman and Mommsen argued against the annals being official documents; it remains inconclusive.

In summing up, as I have illustrated, the value in this genre for historians is its ability to reveal a great deal of information about the period known as late antiquity; once consideration is made for the overwhelming Christian subjectivity inherent within the accounts. Hydatius and the Ravenna Annals pertain particularly to the Western Roman Empire during this period; and the former is rich with information about the barbarian peoples. The peculiar slant of each chronicle author must be taken into consideration when reviewing this material. There is still much to be learned from extant examples from this genre and knowledge will continue to be derived from this rich source.

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